PBA Galleries

2 volumes. Illustrated with 309 engravings from the original paintings by Catlin, plus 3 engraved maps (1 folding). 240 x 150 mm. Red cloth with black spine inlay and gilt spine.

Important study of the American Indians by artist and anthropologist George Catlin who visited 48 Indian tribes on his tour of the West and executed some 600 paintings.

The text and illustrations portray all aspects of Indian life including life in their villages, games, dances, funerals, sudatories, religious ceremonies, buffalo hunting, etc., plus detailed descriptions and depictions of native dress and physiognomy. Catlin traveled through the West in the 1830's, painting portraits of Indians and recording their habitats, weapons, rituals, ceremonies, etc., creating during that decade an "Indian Gallery" of great renown. After taking the entire gallery to England, Catlin published his "Letters and Notes," using text from a series of articles he had written for the New York Commercial Advertiser from 1832 to 1837, and illustrating it with line-cut reductions of his original paintings. Howes C241